MUSEUM OF NOESIS / GÜLŞEN AKIN

The project is conceived as a spatial narrative constructed through memory, silence, and bodily experience, withdrawn underground amidst the intense urban memory and daily noise of Dolmabahçe. Rather than being a visible object, the structure is designed as an underground memory space integrated with the topography. The aim is not to detach the visitor from the city, but rather to allow them to internalize the city’s noise, pressure, and speed by gradually filtering it. In this context, the project works with a sequence progressing from top to bottom. Beginning at the entrance, the Silence Corridor is conceived as a massive and dark reinforced concrete void; it creates a confined space that suppresses sound, light, and the sense of direction. This space acts as a threshold that physically and sensorially “swallows” the chaotic atmosphere of Dolmabahçe. The Entrance Hub & Foyer, reached afterwards, is a transitional area where this pressure is resolved in a controlled manner; here, the visitor adapts to the underground memory layer. Rather than a linear exhibition, the program is shaped around spaces experienced through touch, darkness, emptiness, and materials. Spaces like the Earth Room aim to directly convey the weight of the earth and the layered structure of time. Light filters through surfaces, blurring the boundaries of space; orientation is left to the intuition of the body rather than architectural elements. The load-bearing system is resolved with reinforced concrete shells supported by columns and, in places, shell structures; this allows for both wide openings and the preservation of spatial continuity. The project defines architecture not as an object, but as an experiential space that triggers the relationship between body, memory, and place. In this respect, the structure offers an architectural proposal that speaks through silence, existing through its invisibility.